Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-fvjsw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T08:33:44.456Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chinese Hierarchy in Comparative Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Romeyn Taylor
Get access

Extract

How are we to understand the history of a nonmodern civilization without refracting and distorting what we see through the prism of the ostensibly individualistic and egalitarian modern culture in which most of us live and which we tend to take as normative? In this article I invite other modern-minded readers to turn our worldview upside down and look at Chinese society over the long term from the perspective of its official ideology and not from the perspective of a universalized modern worldview in which economic relations are privileged above all others.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , August 1989, pp. 490 - 511
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

List of References

Balazs, Etienne. 1964. Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy. Trans. Wright, H. M.; ed. Wright, Arthur F.. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Bauer, Wolfgang. 1976. China and the Search for Happiness. Trans. Shaw, Michael. New York: Seabury Press.Google Scholar
Bauer, Wolfgang. 1985. “The Hidden Hero.” In Individualism and Holism: Studies in Confucian and Taoist Values, ed. Munro, Donald. Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies 32. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies.Google Scholar
Bendix, Reinhard. 1962. Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait. New York: Doubleday. CAO YILIN, comp. 1561. Wujiang xianzhi [Gazetteer of Wujiang County].Google Scholar
Chan, Wellington K. K. 1980. “Government, Merchants and Industry to 1911.” In The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 11: Late Ch'ing: 1800–1911, part 2, ed. Fairbank, John K. and Liu, Kwang-ching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chan, Wing-Tsit. 1963. A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chan, Wing-Tsit, trans. 1967. Reflections on Things at Hand. Comp. Chu Hsi and Lu Tsu-ch'ien. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Chan, Wing-Tsit. 1973. “Chu Hsi's Completion of Neo-Confucianism.” In Etudes Song, ed. Aubin, F., ser. 2, no. 1:59–90. Paris: Mouton.Google Scholar
Chang, Chung-Li. 1955. The Chinese Gentry: Studies on Their Role in Nineteenth-Century Chinese Society. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Chavannes, Edouard. 1910. Le t'ai chan: Essai de monographic d'un culte chinois [Tai Shan: Monographic essay on a Chinese Cult]. Paris: Ernest Leroux.Google Scholar
Hezhi, Chen, comp. [1746] 1970. Zhenzhe xianzhi [Gazetteer of Zhenzhe County]. Reprint. Taibei: Chengwen.Google Scholar
Ching, Julia. 1986. “What is Confucian Spirituality?” In Confucianism: The Dynamics of Tradition, ed. Eber, Irene. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
T'ung-Tsu, Ch'u. 1961. Law and Society in Traditional China. Paris: Mouton.Google Scholar
T'ung-Tsu, Ch'u. 1972. Han Social Structure, ed. Dull, Jack. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Ci Hai. 1965. 2 vols. Reprint ed. Taibei: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Cohen, Paul A. 1984. Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Paul A. 1985. “The Quest for Liberalism in the Chinese Past: Stepping Stone to a Cosmopolitan World or the Last Stand of Western Parochialism?—A Review of Wm. Theodore de Bary, The Liberal Tradition in China.” Philosophy East and West 35, no. 3:305–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Confucius, . [1893] 1971. The Confucian Analects. Trans. Legge, James. Reprint. New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Coser, Lewis A. 1978. “Functionalism.” In A History of Sociological Analysis, ed. Bottomore, Tom and Nisbet, Robert. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
CouvreurSéraphin, S.J. Séraphin, S.J., trans. 1913. Li Ki ou mémoires sur les bienséances et les cérémonies. [Li ji: The book of rites]. 2 vols. Hejianfu: Imprimerie de la Mission Catholique.Google Scholar
de Bary, Wm. Theodore, ed. 1960. Sources of Chinese Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
de Bary, Wm. Theodore. 1985. “Confucian Liberalism and Western Parochialism: A Response to Paul A. Cohen.” Philosophy East and West 35, no. 4:339–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Bary, Wm. Theodore. 1986. “Human Rites—an Essay on Confucianism and Human Rights.” In Confucianism: The Dynamics of Tradition, ed. Eber, Irene. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Demieville, Paul. 1956. “La penetration du bouddhisme dans la tradition philosophique chinoise” [The penetration of Buddhism into the Chinese philosophical tradition]. Cahiers d'histoire mondiale 3:19–38.Google Scholar
Demieville, Paul. [1968] n.d. “Gauche et droite en Chine” [Left and right in China]. In Choix d'etudes sinologiques, ed. Hervouet, Yves. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Derrett, J.Duncan, M. 1976. “Rajadharma.” Journal of Asian Studies 35, no. 4:597–609.Google Scholar
DMHD. Darning Huidian [Collected statutes of the Ming dynasty]. [1587] 1968. Comp. Shen Shixing. Reprint ed. Guoxue jiben congshu ed. Taibei: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Dumont, Louis. 1975. “On the Comparative Understanding of Non-Modern Civilizations.” Daedalus 104, no. 2:153–72.Google Scholar
Dumont, Louis. 1977. From Mandeville to Marx. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dumont, Louis. 1980. Homo Hierarchicus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dumont, Louis. 1986. Essays on Individualism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. 1965. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Trans. Swain, Joseph Ward. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. N., ed. 1986a. “The Axial Age Breakthrough in China and India.” In Eisenstadt 1986c.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. N., ed. 1986b. “The Axial Age Breakthroughs—Their Characteristics and Origins.” In Eisenstadt 1986c.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. N. ed. 1986c. The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilization. Albany: State University of New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elvin, Mark. 1973. The Pattern of the Chinese Past. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Farmer, Edward L., Hambly, Gavin R. G., Kopf, David, Marshall, Byron K., and Taylor, Romeyn. 1977. Comparative History of Civilization in Asia. Reading: Addison Wesley. 2 vols.Google Scholar
Fingarette, Herbert. 1972. Confucius—the Secular as Sacred. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Freedman, Maurice. 1974. “On the Sociological Study of Chinese Religion.” In Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, ed. Wolf, Arthur P.. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Fung, Yu-Lan. 1952–1953. History of Chinese Philosophy. Trans. Bodde, Derk. 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gernet, Jacques. 1982. A History of Chinese Civilization. Trans. Foster, J. R.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gernet, Jacques. 1985. China and the Christian Impact. Trans. Lloyd, Janet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gierke, Otto. 1958. Political Theories of the Middle Age. Trans. Maitland, Frederic William. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Girardot, N. J. 1983. Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism: The Theme of Chaos (huntun). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Granet, Marcel. [1934] 1968. Le Pensee chinoise [Chinese thought]. Paris: Editions Albin Michel.Google Scholar
Granet, Marcel. 1973. “Right and Left in China.” Trans. Rodney Needham. In Right and Left, ed. Needham, Rodney. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Granet, Marcel. [1922] 1975. The Religion of the Chinese People. Trans. Freedman, Maurice. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Tzu, Han Fei. 1964. Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings. Trans. Watson, Burton. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Hansen, Chad. 1983. Language and Logic in Ancient China. Michigan Studies on China. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Hansen, Chad. 1985. “Individualism in Chinese Thought.” In Individualism and Holism: Studies in Confucian and Taoist Values, ed. Munro, Donald. Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies 52. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies.Google Scholar
Hartwell, Robert M. 1982. “Demographic, Political, and Social Transformations of China, 750–1550.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 42, no. 2:365–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkes, David, trans. 1959. Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs of the South. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Heesterman, J. C. 1985. The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ping-Ti, Ho. 1962. The Ladder of Success in Imperial China: Aspects of Social Mobility, 1368–1911. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Hsiao, Kung-Chuan. 1979. A History of Chinese Political Thought, vol. 1. Trans. Mote, F. W.. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cho-Yun, Hsu. 1965. Ancient China in Transition. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Cho-Yun, Hsu. 1980. Han Agriculture: The Formation of Early Chinese Agrarian Economy (206 B.C.-A.D. 220). Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Koestler, Arthur. 1967. “General Properties of Open Hierarchical Systems.” In Koestler, , The Ghost in the Machine. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Kracke, Edward A. Jr. 1955. “Sung Society: Change Within Tradition.” Far Eastern Quarterly 14:479–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroker, Edward. 1959. “The Concept of Property in Chinese Customary Law.” Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan 7:123–46.Google Scholar
Kulke, Hermann. 1986. “The Historical Background of India's Axial Age.” In Eisenstadt 1986c.Google Scholar
Mingwan, Li, comp. 1877. Suzhoufuzhi [Gazetteer of Suzhou Prefecture].Google Scholar
Lincoln, Bruce. 1985. “The Tyranny of Taxonomies.” Center for Humanistic Studies Occasional Papers 1. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Lukes, Steven. 1978. “Power and Authority.” In A History of Sociological Analysis, ed. Bottomore, Tom and Nisbet, Robert. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Maspero, Henri. 1971. Le taoisme et les religions chinoises [Daoism and Chinese religions}. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Mather, Richard B. 1985. “Individualist Expressions of the Outsiders During the Six Dynasties.” In Individualism and Holism: Studies in Confucian and Taoist Values, ed. Munro, Donald. Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies 32. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies.Google Scholar
Mencius, . [1895] 1970. The Book of Mencius. Trans. Legge, James. Reprint. New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Miyazaki, Ichisada. [1976] 1981. China's Examination Hell. Trans. Shirokauer, Conrad. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Mote, F. W. 1961. “The Growth of Chinese Despotism: A Critique of Wittfogel's Theory of Oriental Despotism as Applied to China.” Oriens Extremus 8, no. 1:1–41.Google Scholar
Mote, F. W.. 1968. “Chinese Political Thought.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. New York: Macmillan, 1968.Google Scholar
Ostor, Akos. 1980. The Play of the Gods. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Overmyer, Daniel L. 1976. Folk Buddhist Religion: Dissenting Sects in Late Traditional China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, Talcott. 1966. Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott. 1968. “Durkheim, Emile.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. New York: Macmillan, 1968.Google Scholar
Phillips, D. C. 1976. Holistic Thought in Social Science. Stanford: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polanyi, Karl. 1977. The Livelihood of Man. Ed. Pearson, Harry W.. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Rudolph, Suzanne Hoeber. 1987. “Presidential Address: State Formation in Asia—Prolegomenon to a Comparative Study.” Journal of Asian Studies 46, no. 4:731–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabine, George H. 1937. A History of Political Theory. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Benjamin I. 1985. The World of Thought in Ancient China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, G. William, ed. 1977. The City in Late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Robert J. 1983. Japanese Society: Tradition, Self, and the Social Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stein, Burton. 1980. Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Swann, Nancy Lee, trans. 1950. Food and Money in Ancient China: The Earliest Economic History of China to A.D. 25. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Romeyn. 1976. “Ming T'ai-tsu and the Nobility of Merit.” Ming Studies 2:57–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Romeyn. 1977. “Ming T'ai-tsu and the Gods of Walls and Moats.” MingStudies 4:31'50.Google Scholar
Taylor, Romeyn. 1986. “Hierarchies of Value in Chinese Religion: The Structure of Temple Inventories in Suzhou Gazeteers.” Paper presented at the 32d International Congress for Asian and African Studies, Hamburg.Google Scholar
Taylor, Romeyn. 1987. “Order Through Submission in the Great Sacrifices.” Paper presented at the Midwest Conference for Asian Affairs, Northfield, Minn.Google Scholar
Taylor, Romeyn. 1989. “Official and Popular Religion in the Political Organization of Chinese Society in the Ming.” In Orthodoxy in Late Imperial China, ed. Liu, K. C.. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Romeyn Forthcoming. “Official Religion in the Ming.” In Cambridge History of China, vol. 8: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, part 2, ed. Mote, F. W. and Twitchett, Denis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Teiser, Stephen. 1988. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thapar, Romila. 1966. A History of India, vol. 1. Harmondsworth, Engl.: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Tiryakian, Edward A. 1968. “Typologies.” In International Encyclopedia ofthe Social Sciences. New York: Macmillan, 1968.Google Scholar
Som, Tjan Tjoe, trans. 1952. Po Hu Tung: The Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall, vol. 2. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Tokei, Ferenc. 1979. Essays on the Asiatic Mode of Production. Budapest: Akademiai Kiado.Google Scholar
Wei-Ming, Tu. 1981. “The ‘Moral Universal’ from the Perspective of East Asian Thought.” Philosophy East and West 31, no. 3: 259–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Twitchett, Denis C. 1968. “Merchant Trade and Government in Late Tang.” In Asia Major, n.s., vol. 14, no. 1:63–95.Google Scholar
Twitchett, Denis C.. 1970. Financial Administration Under the Tang Dynasty. 2d ed.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
TZSL. Ming Taizu shilu [The veritable records of Ming Taizu}. 1962–1967. Reprint. Nangang: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Wang AO, comp. [1506] 1965. Gusu zhi [Gazetteer of Gusu [Suzhou] Prefecture]. Reprint. Taibei: Xueshengshuju.Google Scholar
Wittfogel, K. A. 1957. Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Worthy, Edmund H. 1975. “Regional Control in the Southern Sung Salt Administration.” In Crisis and Prosperity in Sung China, ed. Haeger, John W.. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar